Mandarin Discussion, NOT the same old ?'s

[crabbychris]

OK, this shouldn't be a repeat of the same old discussions regarding the mandarin. I have a mandarin and the only reason I bought him was because he was huge and had a different fin than any other I had seen at the store. It has a horizontal fin atop the vertical fin on his back. I was wondering if that determined the s-e-x- of the fish or is it something else.
^Why filtered? ^Acceptable in this case!^
Can 2 mandarin's be kept in a large reef if they are male and female?
How to determine male and female?
Is it possible to breed mandarin's?
Temperment towards each other and other tankmates?
I'm not going to bring up the diet of this fish or the difficulty of care because by now that should be common knowledge.

 

[nycbob]

i hv read that male has longer dorsal fin that female. the one u got mostly is a male. of course its possible to breed them, if condition is met. and yeah, most only eat pods!

 

[d-dzel]

I believe that the male's top fin is longer than the female's. I read that somewhere round here

I have a female(I think) and I have been told that it's ok to keep 2 of them as long as they're male and female

 

[lil.guppy]

Yes the males top fin is alot larger then the female almost representing a sailfin

 

[crabbychris]

Yes I know they can be bred. Sorry I should have phrased the question differently. What I meant was what are the conditions to breed them in a reef tank and has it been successfully done. I read somewhere that rotifers may be too large for the fry...what else could you possibly feed them smaller?
I'm pretty sure the one i have is male but it seems that everyone says the dorsal fin is taller, like I said this one is horizontal on top of the vertical part. Not really the best description but it's what i got.

Would a mandarin bother other dragonets such as scooters?

 

[small triggers]

The breeding was discussed in the jan/feb edition of CORAL magazine. Find a copy, it goes into some pretty good detail on what it takes.

 

[nyhcx516x]

Originally Posted by CRABBYCHRIS
http:///forum/post/3008761
Would a mandarin bother other dragonets such as scooters?
^
I think the big issue you would have here is competition for the same food source.
Keeping 2 in the same tank (male and female) the issue there is enough food for both.
Breeding... all the articles and information I have seen out there states that no one has really has luck with breeding them in capitivity. If someone has read otherwise, please do share! (just reread the above post, ill look for that mag, but has anyone seen anything online?) Not something I would attempt yet, im still trying to keep mine alive and healthy as a single guy!